Marathon Readers bring the Poet’s words to life during the annual Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon!
Expectations for VIRTUAL/ONLINE Readers:
(Monday, September 23 – Friday, September 27)
- Readers must plan to attend the full Marathon session. Readers are responsible for ensuring a strong wifi connection and a device capable of capturing video and audio.
- During the week of the Festival, each reader will be emailed a Zoom link unique to them and their selected session. Please use this link to join the session.
- Arrival time in the Zoom room is 15 minutes prior to the start of the session. At this time, readers will be assigned a number that will appear in their name box (e.g. 1: Emily Dickinson, 2: Carlo Dickinson, 3: Susan Dickinson).
- During the session, readers read one poem at a time aloud in order of their assigned reader number. This round-robin reading loops continuously back to reader number 1 after the reader with the highest number has read. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. We will use screen share to project the poems in Zoom, so don’t worry if you do not have your own copy of Franklin. Each reader typically reads 10-20 poems in total, and reader registration is capped to ensure everyone can read several poems. It will not be possible to assign poems to readers in advance of the Marathon session.
- Marathon sessions may be photographed and recorded.
Expectations for IN-PERSON Readers:
(Saturday, September 28 & Sunday, September 29)
- Please arrive at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA, 10 minutes prior to your reading to check in. Readers must plan to attend the full session.
- During this round-robin reading, we will be reading from editor Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Because Dickinson did not title most of her poems, Franklin identifies all 1,789 poems by a number. Don’t worry if you don’t have your own copy of this book; we will provide copies for readers to use. We anticipate that each reader will read 10-20 poems in total. It will not be possible to assign poems to readers in advance of the marathon session.
- This program occurs inside the heated Festival tent and employs a shared, hand-held microphone. Readers are asked to be seated when it is your turn to read, for the benefit of the live stream for listeners at home. In the case of inclement weather, you will be notified of an alternate location.
- By signing up to read you agree to be filmed and livestreamed to virtual attendees through the Festival’s virtual platform.
2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule
Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.